Rural Development Ministry Launches National Push for Women Entrepreneurs

16 Jan 2026 CW Team

DAY-NRLM aims to bring a transformational change in the income levels of rural women through diversified and sustainable livelihoods. Promotion of non-farm enterprises has emerged as a critical pathway in achieving this objective. Over the years, initiatives such as the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme have demonstrated successful enterprise models supported by trained community cadres, who play a key role in enterprise identification, start-up support, mentoring and handholding at the grassroots level.

The Ministry has committed to enabling at least thirty million ‘Lakhpati Didis’, defined as SHG women members earning Rs 1 lakh or more annually. Achieving this ambitious target requires a significant scale-up of trained community-level enterprise support systems, which the new national campaign seeks to address.

The primary objective of the National Campaign on Entrepreneurship is to train and build the capacity of 50,000 community resource persons (CRPs) in enterprise promotion, while also imparting entrepreneurship development programme (EDP) training to 50 lakh SHG members associated with DAY-NRLM.

The launch event saw participation from senior stakeholders, including Advisor, NITI Aayog (RD&PR); Chairman, NABARD; and representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IFMR LEAD (KREA University), EDII and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, along with State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) CEOs and their teams.

The campaign is expected to deepen enterprise development across rural India, foster local economic growth and unlock the entrepreneurial potential of SHG women. By strengthening community institutions and linking grassroots enterprises with formal financial systems, the initiative aims to pave the way for a resilient, inclusive and self-reliant non-farm rural economy.

The Ministry of Rural Development has launched a National Campaign on Entrepreneurship to accelerate the promotion of non-farm rural enterprises and boost income generation among women self-help group (SHG) members under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). The campaign was launched on January 12, 2026, by the Additional Secretary (Rural Development).DAY-NRLM aims to bring a transformational change in the income levels of rural women through diversified and sustainable livelihoods. Promotion of non-farm enterprises has emerged as a critical pathway in achieving this objective. Over the years, initiatives such as the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme have demonstrated successful enterprise models supported by trained community cadres, who play a key role in enterprise identification, start-up support, mentoring and handholding at the grassroots level.The Ministry has committed to enabling at least thirty million ‘Lakhpati Didis’, defined as SHG women members earning Rs 1 lakh or more annually. Achieving this ambitious target requires a significant scale-up of trained community-level enterprise support systems, which the new national campaign seeks to address.The primary objective of the National Campaign on Entrepreneurship is to train and build the capacity of 50,000 community resource persons (CRPs) in enterprise promotion, while also imparting entrepreneurship development programme (EDP) training to 50 lakh SHG members associated with DAY-NRLM.The launch event saw participation from senior stakeholders, including Advisor, NITI Aayog (RD&PR); Chairman, NABARD; and representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IFMR LEAD (KREA University), EDII and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, along with State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) CEOs and their teams.The campaign is expected to deepen enterprise development across rural India, foster local economic growth and unlock the entrepreneurial potential of SHG women. By strengthening community institutions and linking grassroots enterprises with formal financial systems, the initiative aims to pave the way for a resilient, inclusive and self-reliant non-farm rural economy.

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